Paul Cunningham’s Life of Christ Display

The Life of Christ Display showcases the miniature dioramas and black velvet painting of Paul Cunningham, a self-taught artist of meager education and unspecified employment.The dioramas are realistic and detailed, and present the usual highlights of Jesus’s life: the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper, the Resurrection, etc. Startling details—even to a tiny bumble bee on an Easter Lily—give depth of life to these inspiring scenes. Carefully sculptured details and historical accuracy make the Bible come alive in vivid color.

It took Cunningham about a year to create each scene, and he made 30 of them. Thirteen are on display in Cuyahoga Falls (others are in Eureka Springs, Arkansas) and when Cunningham died in 1985, that was the extent of his portfolio. “I have no other desire than to portray the life of Christ,” he is quoted as saying, and obviously he meant it.